Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

Our Summer Holidays so far!

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The kids have now been off for two full weeks (and a couple of days) so I thought I would update with what we’ve been up to so far – especially since I’m not keeping up with my monthly updates at the moment.

The school holidays couldn’t really have been off to a worse start, than a weather forecast like this ^^ However, I am grateful to work from home and so no matter what the weather, at least I get to spend time with the kids! As they broke up on the Wednesday, we had a couple of extra days that week, to fit in some fun. Thursday was one of my favourite days actually as we went to see Despicable Me 3 (which was average in my opinion), then went to Chimichanga for dinner (which we had never been to before) and finally we went to our local park – Hartsholme – for a lovely walk around the lake.

On the Friday, the girls made a video of themselves doing the Beanboozled challenge and I really must remember to upload it, plus we seemed to watch a ton of movies over the first few days including; Definitely Maybe, 10 Things I Hate About You, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Phantom of the Opera and Save the Last Dance. We also got an invite to my mum’s on Sunday for a roast dinner and that was amazing.

The following week was the first full week and for the first four days we had visitors in the form of Amy and Liv. The girls were at their dad’s on the Monday so Amy and I just spent time catching up, then in the evening Chris, Amy and I had chinese takeaway and watched Game of Thrones. The other days were mostly spent sewing, though Amy and I did manage to go fabric shopping too.

The weather was fairly rubbish all week, starting off raining and ending up sunny or vice versa. After dropping Amy and Liv at the station though, the girls and I took a trip to Norton Disney (a place we had joked about visiting for a while) and luckily the sun stayed out for some pics.

That weekend, we went to LFCC (which is London Film and Comic Con). I had been once before and really enjoyed it, but this time was a flying visit really – all so I could meet Wil Wheaton. Chris was working until 4.30pm Saturday so we headed off down to London after that and stayed at a Travelodge near Heathrow. In the morning we drove to North Ealing station, parked there and caught the train to Earl’s Court and then walked to London Olympia. Grabbing a virtual ticket for Wil Wheaton’s queue was first priority but after that we did some shopping and wandered around stalls. We ate lunch and shopped some more until finally we could meet Wil Wheaton. I had taken a blank Flux card with me for signing and had decided a CREEPER would be best. These are cards that if laid in front of you in the game, means you can’t win. Since Wil is pretty notorious for not winning on his YouTube show “Tabletop”, I thought this would be perfect. He seemed to agree and wrote “IT SUCKS TO BE YOU” and then signed it. Sadly as he was passing it back, he smudged the card but I didn’t mind as I still knew what it was. He said “Now it really sucks to be you!” which made us all laugh.

As I’m writing this post, I realise this all happened almost a week ago (it was Sunday and today is Friday) but it honestly only feels like yesterday! Anyway the next day the girls were with their dad and went to a National Park and built a den. They have a video of that too which I hope to upload soon. The rest of this week has really just been spent at home. I had a lot of work to catch up on after Amy’s visit and so the girls have really just entertained themselves on Minecraft, Slime Rancher, Theme Hospital etc. Yesterday though they started a jigsaw with my mum and once my work was done I joined in too. Then mum left and I couldn’t bear to leave the jigsaw unfinished so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening making sure it got done!

That pretty much sums up the last two weeks and I’m so glad its been a combination of lots and nothing. I always think its important to have plenty of down days during the holidays so you don’t feel completely knackered, but you also need days were you do things together, or else you end the holidays feeling like you didn’t do anything! Hopefully I’ll update again soon with whatever else we get up to!

Making a Cosplay Costume

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In Summer, Amy and I (plus Kariss who we met there) attended SFCC (Sheffield Film and Comic Con). Last year we were attending LFCC (London Film and Comic Con) but unfortunately the timing just wasn’t right to get to that one this year. I’ve also attended MCM Comic Con in London this year, back in May. However in the end we decided not to cosplay for that, so SFCC was our first cosplay of the year.

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Amy and I decided on Disney cosplay (surprise surprise). She was going as Briar Rose and I was Belle. Both choices are their “peasant” dresses, so in a way we’ll be a pair.

I started on Amy’s first as I couldn’t get the fabric I needed for mine without ordering. The first thing I did was find a pattern that would work for what I wanted (I only ever work from patterns). It was pretty easy and didn’t take me too long. Ironically it was another Disney pattern, one used to make Elsa’s Coronation dress.

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Next was to pick out some colours. Luckily both costumes comprise of basic block colours, so cotton poplin is perfect for what we need. I headed off to Boyes, picked out come colours and then started to work with the pattern and fabrics.

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So once I cut out all the pattern pieces I was sure about, there was the grey to figure out. I picked one that I thought might be a bit dark and when placed together with all the other fabrics, it was decided between Amy and I, that it was too dark. Sadly this began our own 50 Shades of Grey disaster which took about 8 fabric samples from Ebay before locating. However with the grey only effecting the skirt, it was easy to still continue and make a start.

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Once the top was done and the grey was found, it didn’t take long to sew it all together and add the zip. It was lucky too as I ended up making Kariss an Alice in Wonderland dress and apron, before also making my own Belle outfit. I was fairly pleased with how they all turned out too.

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I have a post on Closet Geek dedicated to all the Cosplay outfits I’ve made so far. But keep an eye out as I will be updating it before too long I’m sure!

Easy (Disney) Cosplay Tips

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So as you know, I love to make costumes and I love to cosplay. I’ve been to a few conventions now – LFCC last year, London MCM in May of this year, SFCC in August and a small Lincoln one in September, two of which I cosplayed for. However not everyone has the ability to sew (or the money to buy handmade) so I decided to share some tips about costumes you can threw together easily, using clothes readily available in stores and online.

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For MCM Comic Con, I was originally choosing to go as Go Go Tomago. If you haven’t seen Disney’s Big Hero 6 then you’ll have no idea who that is – and if you haven’t seen it, then you should! Go Go is an awesome female character and her “everyday” look is really easy to replicate.

The costume is basically made up from a black leather jacket, white t-shirt, black (and purple) leggings, black shorts and black trainers. Depending on how exact you’re wanting to be with your costume, sourcing the exact items might prove tricky. However if you’re happy to improvise, you should get most things fairly easily.

I started with the leather jacket. Of course I wasn’t going to get actual leather, as that would be expensive. I headed off to Ebay to find something cheap and secondhand. The important thing to note about Go Go’s jacket was it’s style – the way it zips up, neckline etc.

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Can you spot the difference between the two?

After the jacket, the rest should come fairly easy. A simple white t-shirt, relatively non nondescript. Black leggings, with purple poking through rips – either a double layer of leggings, black over purple with tears cut in the black – or black leggings with rips, patched up underneath with purple material. Black fingerless gloves. Black trainers. Black shorts. Depending on how close you’re wanting to match, I’m sure you can find black trainers with a splash of purple and black shorts with a splash of red. Failing that you could always add your own – paint for the trainers and ribbon for the shorts.

Last but not least, this leaves the hair. Of course if you’re radical you could cut and dye your own (I actually tricked all my facebook friends into thinking I’d done that) or you can buy a wig.

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So long as you plan fairly far in advance (allowing time for shipping from China) you should be able to pick up a relatively cheap cosplay wig. Mine was around £10 mark and took about 3 weeks to arrive. There are some great bargains out there, for all things cosplay, the more time you allow and the further it can travel from!

Things to Look Forward to…

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I don’t know about you, but I need things to look forward to in life. Little milestone, events, days out, birthdays, holidays – whatever it is, just something in the not too distant future to look forward to. This time last year, I had a countdown running to LFCC (London Film and Comic Con) which was the first convention I’d ever attended AND the first time I’d cosplayed. I was also counting down to a holiday in Paris during October half term, though sadly that didn’t happen – and finally a wonderful trip of a lifetime to Florida the following Easter. Well all of that has been and gone now and I struggle at times to find things to look forward to. In fact, until a few weeks ago I really didn’t have any set dates and events penciled into my calendar. However, all that has changed!

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Sheffield Film and Comic Con – A few weeks back, Amy and I decided we were dying to go to a convention again. I attended MCM in London during May but because I took the kids, I didn’t get the same level of enjoyment as last time and I also didn’t dress up. However Amy and I are going with the sole purpose being to cosplay and I’m excited! Amy is going as Disney’s Briar Rose (Aurora when she lives in the forest) and I’m going as Disney’s Belle in her blue peasant dress. I’ve already started on Amy’s costume and as soon as I can get the right grey for the skirt, it will be finished! I need to start on my own but I have a good idea what I’m doing.

Paris Weekend – As I mentioned before, last year we were supposed to have a family trip to Paris but we had to cancel it for a couple of reasons. I have been dying to go to Paris for pretty much all my life and I was devastated when all our plans crumbled. Over the last few months I’ve been looking into various ways to get to Paris cheaply, as ever since Florida my finances have been in a fairly poor state. There is a coach company that offers really good options, but also sites like Into the Blue experiences who offer not only day experiences, but also holidays too. They actually have a couple to Paris in fact. However in the end it looked like there might be another opportunity to go to Paris (see below) and so I jumped at that. Finances were figured out, options were looked into and even baby sitters were considered. But then I started to feel guilty that I hadn’t been with my family and maybe Chris and the girls would be sad if I went without them. In stepped my mum (a total hero) and offered to take us all away for the weekend in May and then there was a second thing added to my look forward to list!

Fairytales IV – As you can probably tell, I’m a huge fan of conventions. I’ve only been to a few but they are now becoming something I look into ALL the time. Well every year in Paris (for the last 3 years) there has been a Once Upon a Time convention and every year I’ve wanted to go. Last year we’d arranged a blog meet far too close to the date of the convention and this year we knew things would be tight after Florida. However next year there is really nothing stopping us… so let’s just say we’ve penciled it in and perhaps even booked a hotel ;)

There are lots of other things on the cards, MCM Comic Con in October, Storybrooke in April (though I have to admit to being jealous of SDCC that’s on this weekend), plus I hope to have the odd day here and there with the kids during Summer holidays. Amy and Liv are coming over in a few weekends time and we’re going to see Inside Out and even though that’s something small, again it’s just nice to have something to look forward to.

Where has summer got to?

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In previous years, Summer has usually been and gone by now. Well not really, but you know we’ve usually had that week in May where there’s a really hot week and after that, nothing really comes close, bar a day here and there. We were promised a heat wave this June and so far… well it’s a little disappointing to be honest. Sure, the sun is out and the rain has disappeared for a little while, but it’s still not HOT, is it?

When we were on holiday in Florida, in April, the weather was too hot. Us Brits just aren’t really built for that type of hot. That said, I really enjoyed how warm it was and other than worrying about hats and suntan lotions, myself and the girls really soaked up the sun. If the air conditioning had been working properly and we’d actually been cool in the villa, I think perhaps I could have lived with the Florida heat. Chris on the other hand grumbled the whole time, desperate to get back to the weather of our own country. Now we’re back I think I’ve been suffering from a bit of SAD. I need some nice warm days to get me back in a positive mood. I’ve sold all my Florida dresses on Ebay and it’s a little depressing. Would you believe I’m still wearing a leather jacket and a scarf most days?

So to get myself feeling a little warmer, I decided I would share with you some of the things I love most about summer!

Family Holidays – Two years ago we had a very impromptu holiday to Legoland. The weather was absolutely beautiful for majority of the day and even when it rained, we just got wet but not cold. I love having the kids off for six weeks, despite the fact they can get on my nerves a little at times. I always encourage Chris to book a week off in July/August so we can do something, even if it’s just for a couple of days.

Family Days Out – If we can’t manage a full holiday, we at least manage a few days here and there. Last year we went to Warwick Castle, Cadbury’s World, Eureka and National Forest Adventure Farm. Sometimes I take the kids by myself, other times Chris comes too and if all else fails, my mum is always on hand to tag along.

LFCC – Alright so I’ve only been once last year, but I’d love to go again this year too. In May we went to MCM Comic Con and it was great to see the difference between the too, but I’d still really like to head down to London in July and go again.

Learning new things – Last summer Megan finally learnt to ride her bike and I imagine this year Lily will too. Summer is always such a perfect time to learn to bike ride, swim, fly a kite etc. When the sun is out you always feel more inclined to do things. We always walk into town instead of drive too.

Adult Days Out – Normally the girls go away with their dad for a few days in Summer and he has them overnight at least once a week. This allows for adult days out and since these are so few and far between, I like to make the most of them. Last year we obviously had LFCC for a whole weekend but also I went to both Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. As much as I love the kids, it’s great to have time without them too.

There are loads of other things I like about summer – BBQs, trips to the beach, being able to wear dresses and so on. However these are just some of my top picks. However instead of a sun hat and sandals, I’m far more likely to be wrapping myself up in cashmere and wooly jumpers. Luckily Summer is great time to grab some bargains on Winter clothes!

Week 31 – Monday Round-up

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It’s been a great week! As I write this, I’m looking back and thinking how its been a great balance of relaxing, plus getting out and about! Yet another week of school holidays have passed but its a lovely feeling to know there are several more to go!

Monday started off with a family day out – my mum, the girls and I – to Warwick Castle. I’d gotten free tickets with my Sun+ Perks and so we headed out together for the day. It was breath-takingly beautiful at the castle, though mostly the grounds. I took so many photographs, though I have to admit that once we got into the castle itself, it did feel a little too comercialised. The girls seemed to enjoy the day and both left with a quill pen they bought themselves and a bow and arrow that I treated them to. I’m sure Lily thinks she’s Merida now!

Tuesday was a relax day. The girls and I didn’t do very much – in fact Megan spent pretty much the whole day Facetiming one of her friends. It still blows my mind how that’s even possible these days. Lily and I watched 3 movies, back to back; The Swan Princess, Tinker Bell and Princess Lillifee and the Little Unicorn. In the evening, Nat came around, and it was good to catch up!

Wednesday was another fairly quiet day. This time though, the girls and I headed out swimming. We’d been promising to go ever since school broke up but with one thing or another, we just hadn’t got around to it. We had a lovely swim and afterwards I treated the girls to their first proper Subway. We did some shopping in the afternoon and then headed home. Lily wanted to watch The Incredibles and amazingly Megan chose to come off her computer and watch it too. In the evening, my brother and our friend Jon came around to play a board game. Chris had bought the Firefly board game at LFCC and so we all sat down to play that – I even let Megan stay up for it. We ploughed our way through 5 bottles of wine and had a great night!

Thursday the kids were going to their dad’s, though he doesn’t usually arrive until almost lunch. However that seemed to put a stop to us really doing anything, just waiting for him to come and get them. We did of course pack up their bags and just hang out together. Once the girls were gone, I’d had lots of intentions of getting things done. However when the time came, I just wanted to mong! I finished watching Gossip Girl, season 5 and 6 which I had been making my way through for the last week or so. I then moved on to catching up on Misfits, only to realise I’d seen them all. Next I tried 90210 but that was only the first 4 seasons and I’d seen them. Finally I decided to just watch some movies and ended up watching The Big Wedding and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. As well as watching A LOT of tv, I also caught up on the internet world and my blog. It was a nice day in the end!

Friday and Chris was off work, but I had to pick the kids up from their dad. We headed out about 10am and once we’d picked them up, we decided to head into Lincoln and get the kids school shoes sorted out. It didn’t take us very long, as it wasn’t busy. This was a huge relief compared the usual last week of holiday rush we’re used to. After shoes, we did lunch (Subway again) and then wandered around a few shops. We headed then to mum’s house and picked up Megan’s bike, as well as stopping for a cup of tea. Later when we went home, Megan went out on her bike but sadly at 9, she still isn’t willing to trust herself to ride! We’ll get there though…

Saturday and this time Chris was at work all day. We’d asked my mum if she wanted to come over and go swimming with us and so at about 10.30am she arrived. We headed out swimming and Lily made some good progress, managing to swim under water, even though she didn’t seem to be able to on top of the water. I managed to figure out why Megan was having so many problems swimming, and we tried to work on that too. After swimming, we stayed at the leisure centre cafe for lunch. It was pretty simple, not much choice, but nice enough. We headed back to our house and mum tried to take Megan out on her bike. Sadly there wasn’t much more progress and then it started to rain which put an end to it anyway. The girls and I relaxed for the rest of the day and I watched Short Circuit 2. Once the girls were in bed I sat down to just watch more tv and wait for Chris to get home.

Finally came Sunday and as we’d arranged for mum to come and go swimming with us again, we didn’t bother to get dressed until after lunch when we could put our swimming costumes straight on. To be honest, we didn’t really do anything all morning. However after lunch we headed out swimming again. I bought the girls a pair of goggle each as they’d struggled with sore eyes the day before. Lily officially became able to swim. It’s still under water but she’s managing almost a full width now. Megan also improved, finding that her style and form is much better under water, just like Lily. After swimming we headed to Morrisons for some shopping and then mum came back for a cup of tea. After she left, we got ready for the girls to go to their dad’s again, then had dinner and just waited for him to arrive. Once they’d gone, I again settled down with my laptop and the TV as company. I spent majority of the evening, chilling out and waiting for Chris to get home from work.

It was a great week and I’m hoping for another to come. I don’t think we have anything at all planned for this week so I guess we’ll just see what happens!

Making my Vanessa (Ursula) Costume

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This week I have focused on all my time at London Film and Comic Con last weekend. I did a day by day breakdown, along with the costumes and cosplays by both my group and several other people who attended. However the one thing I haven’t focused on yet is how I made my own costume.
Once I’d finally decided on a person to be (the clothes being part of that decision), I decided immediately that instead of wanting to make a dress, I would make a corset and skirt. Recently I have been wearing a lot of corsets, largely because I’m unhappy with my size and shape. With that in mind, I ordered these two patterns from Ebay.
Once the two patterns arrived, I proceeded to order all the bits I would need for making the two items. There was boning, zips, eyelets etc.
After much consideration I picked Iris and Purple as my material colours, along with a black lining material. It was then time to begin!
As the skirt seemed the easiest to take, I did that one first. It was a really simple pattern, just 6 main panels to make the skirt and another two for the waistband. I managed majority of the sewing myself, though I have to admit I called in to see my mum when it came to adding the zip. Not because I couldn’t… just because I figured she’d do it better.
Next I moved onto the corset. I’ll admit I was sort of dreading it a little but the beginning seemed fairly straight forward at least so I cracked on with that. There were lots of pieces to cut out, not just from the purple but also from the black lining and also from interface. It took quite some time just to get it all cut out.

Next it was a case of ironing on the interfacing and sewing all the purple pieces together. Then doing the same for the black lining. After that the boning had to be attached to the lining pieces. Finally it was starting to take on a corset type shape.

Before officially sewing it all together, my mum pinned it all together. The part at the front was actually my mum’s idea too – a fake opening instead of an actual lace-up front. Once I was sure it all looked okay and was going to fit (we actually took it in about an inch on each side), we sewed it all up properly. I then had to edge it all, which I chose to do by hand to make it look neater.

When it was all finished, I was really pleased with the result. I added eyelets and ribbon, the corset was made and the outfit was complete. Well almost anyway… I’d ordered a necklace from Etsy, the perfect thing.

Finally, all that was left to do, was get rid of my blonde tips in my hair. I bought a cheap brown hair dye and within 30 or so minutes, my hair was all brown again. Not just that, but it was in great shiny condition!

And that was that. My outfit was complete and I wrote it to LFCC last weekend. I was really pleased with how it turned out and while I expect I won’t wear it again, I was really happy with the choice to be Vanessa.

Comic Con and Cosplay

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Last weekend, I attended my first ever convention – LFCC (London Film and Comic Con). I’m not going to lie – it was a whole big geek fest and I loved every moment of it! More importantly, I decided to participate in all the geekery, cosplaying on the Saturday.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I really struggled to decide what to dress as for LFCC. I had several ideas, none of which really panned out, until I finally settled on Vanessa (Ursula in disguise, from The Little Mermaid animation by Disney). Not just that, but I decided to make my own costume, so that not only was it homemade, it would be sure to fit.

That said, many people who dress up for these type of things, don’t have the time or skill to do that. This leads to them making costumes in different ways, buying them from proper cosplay shops, or even getting them from standard fancy dress shops. The really nice thing, that I found at least, is that no one really judges the quality of what you’re wearing, more that you’re just participating. Not only that, but no one cares what you’re actually dressed as either – everything is acceptable.

One of the most fascinating things about LFCC for me, was actually looking at everyone’s costumes and how they were dressed. There was such a huge array of characters, styles and fandoms. Our group was made up of myself as Vanessa, Amy as Ariel (Little Mermaid), my brother Chris and his girlfriend Erika as Han Solo and Princess Leia (Star Wars) and my partner Chris was Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist).

Obviously Amy and I made sort of a pair. We were at least from the same movie – a Princess and the Villain (though without being a fat, purple, octopus lady). I knew that very few people would actually understand my costume, but it didn’t matter to me as I liked having quite an unknown character to dress as.

My brother and his girlfriend, went as something a little more mainstream and well known. We knew there would be plenty of characters there from Star Wars but Han and Leia were also easy costumes for them to throw together. We jokingly set them the challenge of finding as many different characters to have their picture taken with and they definitely rose to the challenge.

Finally, my partner Chris went as probably the most niché of all our costumes – Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist. It was actually very late through the Saturday before we even saw someone from the same show as him.

The best thing really… is that anything goes. Whether you want to dress as someone from Disney, My Little Pony, Lego or Barbie. If you prefer Horror, Action, Thriller or Anime. If you’re a girl who wants to dress as a boy or a boy that wants to dress as a girl. If you want to be an animal like the Beast, an object like the Tardis, or even a Steampunk twist on a regular character – its really just fine to do whatever.

Though I didn’t take many pictures myself, between our group we did seem to capture quite a lot of costumes. Here are some of them:

I can’t wait to attend another convention, whether its LFCC or something else. I really enjoyed dressing up and given enough time, I’m sure I can think up another idea that I’ll be happy with!

Stay tuned for my next post… how I made my own cosplay costume!

*A big thank you to Chris, Chris, Amy and Erika whose pictures I pinched for this post!

Day 3: LFCC – London Film and Comic Con (July 11th-13th)

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Day 3 and my final day of LFCC – Sunday! This day, there was going to be 8 of us instead of the 5 from the other days. Our friends, Nat, Tom and Jon had joined us the evening before and so together we were all attending for the Sunday.

Having ended up in a long queue the day before, we were all prepared for a long wait that morning too. We were prompt getting away from the Travelodge, this time with all our bags in tow too. Luckily we could leave everything in the car at Hounslow, as we caught the tube to Earls Court yet again. We weren’t dressed up and for that I was glad. As much as it had been nice to Cosplay the day before, I missed my jeans and t-shirts! The eight of us headed out of Earls Court tube station and were very pleased to see a lot less signs of queues than the day before. However, it wasn’t long before we realised the queue was just being a bit better organised and wandering in a different direction. It was still almost as long as the day befores! That said, the queue moved steadily from the moment we joined it and it wasn’t long before we got inside.

There were quite a lot more celebrities there for signing on Sunday and so we made our way around, deciding if we’d want anyone’s autograph or not. As we were mostly in pairs now, we all split up to wander around and it was really nice just spending time with Chris as a couple. Though it was still fairly busy (and got busier as the day wore on) it wasn’t as hot or as busy as the day before. Also, as we’d seen and done most things, it was nice to just browse and take some time to buy some last minute souvenirs. Since I wanted to take something back for the girls, I ended up buying a Time Turner necklace for Megan, a Minecraft plush for Lily and then some Hogwarts biscuits for them both.

My only really grumble about Sunday was that the cash machine inside Earls Court was out of cash and on top of that, only a few of the stalls would take card payment. As such, midway through the day, Amy and I ended up heading out to find a cash point – only to find that 3-4 along the way were actually out of cash too. In the end, we stopped at a Co-op, bought some food and a drink and claimed some cash back. After that we headed back to the convention, buying the last few bits that we wanted.

I bought this beautiful canvas (as you might remember, it matches the decal on my laptop), along with some film clip pictures – ones of Tron for Chris and one of Harry Potter for myself and the girls.

Eventually, even though it was only about 1.30pm, we decided to call it a day. We had to get back to Hounslow, then drive back to Lincolnshire, and all of us were looking forward to getting back to the kids. All in all though, it was an amazing weekend and I’m so glad we went. I genuinely can’t wait to go to another Comic Con or another LFCC specifically.

My most prize posession/buy of the whole weekend, is by far my Funko Pop figure of Stan Lee. It’s a Limited Edition, LFCC 2014 Stan Lee Collectible. It’s taking pride of place in my dining room right now!

Tomorrow I will be posting all about the various costumes and cosplay that we saw at LFCC. I will also be writing about my own cosplay and how I made my costume – so please look out for that!

Day 2: LFCC – London Film and Comic Con (July 11th-13th)

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Yesterday when I started my post about LFCC, I had fully expected to write about all three days in one post. However the more I wrote, the more I realised it would be better as separate posts. So if you’d like to read about my Friday, and Preview Evening at LFCC, you can read my Day 1: LFCC post here.

Today I want to focus on the Saturday – by far my favourite day of the whole weekend. The five people in our group, had all agreed to dress up. As Amy had decided to be Ariel, after much thought, I decided to go as Vanessa – Ursula in disguise. My brother and his girlfriend decided to go as Han Solo and Princess Leia, while my partner Chris went as Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist.

I got up at 7am and jumped straight into the shower. I knew it would take me a while to get ready and we wanted to be out of the Travelodge around 8am. Once I was showered, I got straight into my costume and this is pretty much how I looked:

Next I moved onto my makeup. Since Vanessa doesn’t really wear makeup (or at least she doesn’t seem to) so I kept mine fairly basic. I’m not really one for lots of makeup anyway to be honest, so I preferred it that way.

Once everyone was ready, we set off for Hounslow again. While we waited on the platform, we took a group selfie. When we got on the tube, we took another. It was actually great fun, getting on the tube all dressed up – especially as no one really batted an eyelash.

On the next carriage over, there was another group of cosplayers, all dressed up in DC Comic themed costumes. There was The Joker, The Riddler and Harley Quinn. When we arrived at Earls Court, the first thing that hit us was just how much busier it looked today, than it had the night before. As we walked towards Earls Court 2, the queues looked huge (and chaotic) and we knew it was going to be some time before we actually got into the building! However Optimus Prime and all the other Transformers were outside the building and this time I wasn’t going to miss photographing them!

Eventually we found where we were supposed to queue. We had Early Bird tickets and the queue ran up one way and then back the other, but it didn’t seem so bad. We started to queue at around 9am but it soon became obvious that we would be queuing a long time. Though it had appeared to be a short line, the queue in actual fact went right around the building, way further than you could see. It was actually about 10.30am before we got inside of the convention hall. Even then, it was obvious to see that it was much busier than the night before, so we quickly wandered around to see whose autographs we might want, grabbing a VQ ticket. I got 176 for Anthony Head and 726 for John Hurt. Chris also got one for Casper Van Dien. I would have loved to also meet Jamie Bamber, T.J. Thyne, Edward James Olmos, Jenna Coleman, and Milo Ventimiglia, but unfortunately funds couldn’t run to that! Instead we then wandered off around the stalls, popping back every now and again to check what numbers our VQs were at.

The rest of the day isn’t so much of a step by step guide, but instead a vague relay of what happened. Chris met Casper Van Dien, we both met Anthony Head. Our group split up for the majority of the day, but every now and again, especially when it got too warm in the building, we’d all meet up outside and sit in the shade for a while. We had lunch, we checked out the West Brompton building and then we wandered around some more. There were definitely parts of the day when I wished we could go home and change. I loved my costume but it was just such a warm day that I wanted to trade it in for my jeans and a t-shirt. We also had to hang around for the Game of Thrones screening and commentary at 7pm, so it did feel like a bit of a wait at times.

At around 5.30pm, after checking John Hurt’s queue loads of times, it was finally my turn to queue! It felt a little rushed and almost like we were being herded into the autographing area, but at that point I didn’t care. I was about to meet Mr Ollivander!

I have to admit I went a little fan girl after meeting John Hurt! It was a long day and he wasn’t personalising autographs, but I still got to say how nice it was to meet him and he said it was nice to meet me too and then we shook hands. I almost skipped out of the signing booth!

By that point, the convention was starting to wind down for the day. Amy and I ran around taking shots of all the different celebrities, as the queues to meet them died down. Afterwards everyone had to leave the hall, but we re-queued as we needed to get back in for the GoT screening. Again it was another long queue and while it was supposed to start at 7pm, it was actually 7.30pm before everyone was even seated.

Even then it was 7.45pm before anything actually got started. We watched an episode of GoT, with a commentary from Finn Jones, Kristian Nairn and Daniel Portman. It was pretty fun but at the same time there were moments that just felt a little awkward. I also thought it was a bit of shame that Showmasters had advertised a Special Guest and then it was just a Joffrey piñata. That said, it was an awesome piñata and now I want one!

The screening finally finished around 9pm. We had friends waiting outside for us – two of which had been to the Harry Potter Studio that day, the other of which had caught the train up just to meet up with us. We all headed back to the tube and then back to Hounslow. There we got Pizza Hut and KFC for dinner before heading back to the Travelodge. Outside the hotel, we got chatting to someone who was running a stall at Comic Con. We also saw Optimus Prime in the car park again! Finally though, we all headed to bed, knackered from an exhausting day and ready for another the next day!